#posting here bc I forgot my information for my personal whoops

[yb-cringe]

1 - 30 FOR ARO ASKS I WANT TO KNOW ALL YOUR PERSONAL BUISNESS

I have a guess as who sent me this— ANYWAY—

I’m gonna say NOW that this is a long post. I’ll skip 17 and 18 cause I already answered them.

i dont know how to do the [MORE] thing so. Sorry! I’ll keep it brief.

1. I’m aromantic! No romantic attraction here baybeee— cant have shit in detroit.

2. (Sexual orientation?) not applicable! I’m a NON-SAM aro!

3. (Romance repulsed?) nah I love romance in fiction!

4. (Voidpunk?) i think voidpunk is SO COOL but I just don’t vibe with it as im very. Cottagecore, i think?

5. (What types of attraction do you experience?) fuck if i know. Platonic, sensual, aesthetic, etc. who knows man not me.

6. (How do you show platonic love?) hmm usually by sending memes and hugs— mostly I’ll “adopt” people bc I love to care for people!

7. (Single forever?) thats the plan! A life partner is fine but im not planning for one. If one happens in my life, thats cool! But i’m down to be a single dad :)

8. No dream partner! A dog, if that counts, as my partner in crime >:000

9. (Which flag is your fav of aros) i love the newest one with the white stripe. The orange one is problematic and the yellow one is a lil visually wrong imo. (Tho i have a fondness for it bc i joined the community when it was at its peak)

10. (Opinion on soulmates) i’m gonna be honest folks, i’m not educated enough on this topic to give a good clear opinion on it. I’ll get back to you on it.

11. (Opinion on shipping?) I think its okay! As long as its not real people. And also if you ship a canon arospec character with someone and make them not aromantic i have a bone to pick with you. *cough cough caduceus clay is aro stop fucking shipping him with people in a romantic matter*

12. (Only romo shipping?) nah man, i love that found family shit! And ahh I always want people to be friends if they talk bc how cool would that be! I ship romo couples and platonic couples!

13. (Are you out irl?) mm... not really... no one knows except some college friends. And i dont think they know/understand non-sam aros so i dont bring it up. And my family can... probably never know.

14. (How did you come out) irl i came out to my college friends with a flag on the door. Anyone who asked about it got the answer and people who didnt either knew what it was already or didnt care so! I also did a powerpoint presentation once- whoops. ONLINE however... is a story I’ll have to save for later cause its long. But i came out 3 times to the same people bc i forget the previous times i did it.

15. (Do you know any irl aro people?) after my aromantic presentation, yes! I was so mad over the lack of aro information given to my queer friends so after a long presentation- some of them realized they were aro! Or arospec, at least. It made me so happy to know I helped someone figure out another part of who they are, and that they arent broken. Thats my dream.

16. (How do you feel about being aro?) i love it! Its hard as balls sometimes don’t get it twisted, but I love it all the same. It’s opened me up to so many new experiences and people, opened my eyes to so much more of the world/a new perspective of the world. I honestly think if I forgot everything I knew now, forgot I was aro— I’d come back to that conclusion anyway.

19. (When did you know about aros) I have no idea. Its in that space of time where everything is a little funky. My guess is that I found asexual, became aroace, found out what being aro was, and somehow latched to that more? Probably through AVEN.

20. (How did you know you were aro) oo. Uh. Hm. Well this most recent time, I found out DURING a relationship. I just didn’t know why no relationship I had ever... clicked? No feelings of love towards them. Nothing I ever heard from my friends or family. And every “crush” i had was only AFTER i found out they liked me, and my brain kicked into “oh we’re supposed to love them now bc this is your chance to be normal”. After we broke up, BECAUSE i didnt love them, i asked myself why i constantly felt this way. Why i never had crushes as a kid. Or on celebrities. One thing led to another, and boom!

21. (Aro headcanons?) OH SO MANY MAN. My favorite is Sean from Stranger Things 2. Theres an option to choose he doesn’t do relationships or like anyone. And considering you can say he likes girls or boys, I’d like to think he’s aromantic bisexual! Oh! And Sonic the Hedgehog. No i will not explain.

22. (Dream aro canon?) OH ID LOVE just. A normal fucking aro person. Not a robot, not a villain. Hopefully a main character! Where they don’t get a romantic sub plot and no one’s sorry for them. And they get to hang out with their friends and live! And live happily!

23. (Aro icon) uhh... I don’t... really know of any? But I like Yasmin Benoit! She’s mostly an ace advocate but, I appreciate her all the same.

24. (Fav aro song) mm I mean “Crush Culture” bu Conan Gray really sums up my life. But I also like “Better By Myself” by Hey Violet!

25. (Fav movie not focused on romance) that’s a hard one... Nez Ha i think right now! Its a cute movie loosely based on chinese mythology! Also the power of friendship saves the day, whats not to love?

26. (fav tv show not based on romance) OH oh I LOVE KIPO AND THE AGE OF WONDERBEASTS!!!

27. (What popular romantic relationship do you see as platonic?) OH man oh man ohhh man.... don’t hate me but I see Jester as aromantic, so all the jester ships uhhhhhh... :/. Sorry y’all dont kill me.

28. (Squishes?) Nah i dont think so? I mean ive wanted people to be my friends...?????

29. (Aro pride merch?) yes!! I have an aro flag! And I’ve made my shoes aro with some embroidery floss.

30. (Advice for any aros?) GOD where to begin... ok so you’re gonna have a panic phase where you think you’ll die alone but you won’t. And check to make sure you had romantic feelings BEFORE someone admits their love for you. So you’re doing it out of actual love, not expectations. Its hard to avoid.

[antiquecompass]

Untamed Fest Day 2: Dynamic

Summary: Wherein Sizhui has a best friend and a crush and parents who care, perhaps, maybe, just a little too much.

(So, like I said yesterday these fics are going to bounce around the ages of 11-18 for the Juniors. In this one Sizhui is 14. It’s also pre-Sizhui/Jingyi. Don’t worry, nothing will get above Teen in this entire series, and only then bc I, and therefore characters I write, curse like a sailor.)

When it came to personality, at least inside the confines of Lan Academy, Lan Sizhui had taken after his Papa. He projected an aura of quiet leadership and confidence; fair in judgment, but willing to mete out and take punishments. Even at fourteen, he was already one of the leaders on the Student Council; the youngest Vice President in a decade. Sizhui had entered the Academy at the age of eleven, determined to prove any doubters wrong, and had done so quietly and efficiently, just like a Lan should.

Lan Jingyi did not lead quietly, though he was still a leader among their class. Lan Jingyi had the type of dynamic personality that drew others in, fluttering around him like butterflies, but he ignored most of them to keep the company of his two best friends. He was loud, opinionated, and always willing to make his feelings known. He wasn’t the way many thought a Lan should be, but he was very much a Lan, through and through, just willing to openly show the more stubborn parts of their personality that people forgot they had under their veneer of genteel manners.

It was often said that together, Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi truly made the perfect Lan. A balance of the best, and worst, traits. Sizhui was calm and quiet, Jingyi excitable and loud, but where Sizhui often had self-doubts, Jingyi had enough pride and confidence for the both of them. They’d grown up as a pair, rarely apart, settling into their roles and friendship with an enviable and familiar ease. So many years together, being so known to each other, they were a hard pair to defeat in anything--be it something as simple as a classroom debate or something more serious as an actual fight to defend someone’s honor. Since they were always found in each other’s company, they’d become the pride of the family and the Academy. 

Sizhui was proud to be the one-half of such a whole.

Sizhui also had a problem.

He knew he had a crush on Jingyi. It’d been there for years. Apparently he’d told his fathers at the ripe old age of five that he was going to marry Jingyi one day, and while it’d been a story retold often at family gatherings for laughs...well, Sizhui may not have truly meant it at five, but at fourteen, it was definitely a future he wanted.

And somehow he knew that wasn’t normal.

He knew it was normal, for him, to have a crush. His fathers had taken great pains to inform him about different sexual and gender identities and forms of attraction and the like as soon as he showed the first hints of a boyhood crush. So he knew a crush, especially on attractive, kind, funny, caring Jingyi wasn’t unusual. They’d been best friends since they were four. There was no one else his age Sizhui trusted more than Jingyi.

But Sizhui was worried that he’d passed the crush stage long ago and had been firmly planted in something that he was hesitant to call love, because he was only fourteen, but knew that clearly picturing a future with Jingyi that saw them married and raising some kids of their own as the most natural course of their relationship probably meant something significant. 

He knew most Lans fell hard, fell once, and fell in love for life. But Sizhui was a Lan in name only. 

Perhaps Nurture had won this round versus Nature.

He still needed to talk to someone before he embarrassingly blurted out his love for Jingyi straight to his face, probably when the other was devouring a basket of chicken wings. That would be Sizhui’s luck. He’d probably make poor Jingyi choke. And then he’d have to give him the Heimlich or something, and Jingyi would probably spit out his chicken bone right into Great Uncle Lan’s face, and then Sizhui would have to go find a grave plot to bury himself in after he died from the collective embarrrassment. 

So, yeah, he needed to talk to someone.

**********

Dad’s office occupied the single turret tower of their massive house. He jokingly called it his gargoyle hoard, and often sang songs from Disney’s take on The Hunchback of Notre Dame as he climbed the stairs to the tower. Or he called for Papa with, ‘Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, let down your hair��� which never made much sense to Sizhui since Dad was the one in the tower, but they all indulged Dad’s whims and humor.

From the outside the tower looked imposing in its stone and dark shingled roof, but inside it was full of vibrant color. All of his books were here, crammed on an overstuffed bookshelf, containing every edition of every book he’d published in every language available, a handmade wooden sign hung above it declaring, A Leap of Faith. Art of his various characters hung on the wall, some official that he’d commissioned, some of his own making, but most sent by fans from around the world in the barrels of mail that came to the house each week. 

It was a cluttered mess of genius that perfectly encapsulated his dad. 

Today Dad was behind his desk, hair pulled up into a messy bun, with fingers covered in paint as he worked out some new character designs for his latest story. He was slowly moving from elementary reading level books to Young Adult, but his new series would straddle that border of Young Adult and New Adult--that vague spot where the characters weren’t young teens, nor in their mid-20s, but still had their own stories to tell. It was a story he’d been wanting to tell for years, based largely on his own life, but set in a mystical and magical modern world. 

His papa was unceremoniously sprawled out on the battered couch that had followed his fathers from their apartment in Cambridge, to their home in Boston, to this massive estate in the Berkshires. Sizhui smiled to himself as he pictured his classmates faces if they ever saw the great Hanguang-Jun with such imperfect posture, wearing only worn sweatpants and a t-shirt older than Sizhui. His hair was also pulled up into a messy bun, a red pen clutched in his teeth as he read through the most recent edit of Dad’s new book. 

Sizhui smiled as he watched them. His parents had always been so full of warmth and love--for him, for each other, for all their family--that Sizhui knew he’d been spoiled in care and affection. And he wanted that, the connection that they had. He knew it wasn’t effortless, every relationship took work and dedication and effort, but they made it seem so very easy. 

“Sizhui, why do you linger?” Papa asked, eyes barely leaving the bound pages in his hands.

“Because he is a good boy who waits until he’s invited in, even though he knows he never has to,” Dad said, waving him inside. “What can we do for our favorite son?”

“Your only son, since you never did give me that sibling I asked for,” Sizhui teased.

Dad smirked. “Not for lack of trying,” he said.

“Wei Ying,” Papa admonished from the couch.

Dad patted the chair next to his desk. “Come. Sit. Speak. Bond. I feel like we never talk anymore.”

“We had an entire family conference just last night,” Sizhui said as he took his seat.

Dad frowned. “But that was school stuff. I want gossip, Sizhui. I want the deets. I want the 411. Give me the dirt. Spill the tea. Or the beans.” He looked to Papa. “What else do the kids say these days?”

“None of what just passed your lips,” Papa said. 

Dad frowned. “So mean, Lan Zhan.” His pout became more pronounced as he turned to Sizhui. “See how he treats me? Betrayed by my very own heart and soul.”

Sizhui shook his head at them, but grasped on to the opening. “So, about that.”

He didn’t know what he expected to happen but Dad actually gasped and Papa sat up so fast he nearly tumbled off the couch.

“Is it happening?” Dad asked. “Did it happen?” He pulled out his leather planner, full of post-it notes, napkins, and various other bits and bobs. “I had you two down for at least another month from now, but your Papa insisted it would be before Halloween.”

“What?” Sizhui asked as he looked back and forth between his parents.

“Sizhui,” Papa said as he walked over to the desk. “Did Lan Jingyi not ask you out on a date?”

“What?” Sizhui asked. He felt the blood rush to his face, in his ears, blocking out all other sounds. “What?” he repeated.

Dad grimaced. “Whoops. I think we broke him. Bad parenting penalty.”

“No--I---what?” Sizhui asked again. “I just wanted to know how you, like, know if you like someone more than a friend and you’re running a bet on my dating life? With my best friend?”

“To be fair, your Uncle Huaisang runs a bet on everything,” Dad said.

“Wei Ying,” Papa cautioned. 

“Fine,” Dad said, pushing his planner to the side. He sat forward and grasped Sizhui hands. “Sizhui, if you’re asking us this question, do you not already know the answer?”

Sizhui nodded. “But, how can you be sure?”

“In your own heart, what do you feel?” Papa asked. He knelt to meet Sizhui’s downcast gaze. “You don’t have to tell us, or even him, but you’ll feel so much more relief if you acknowledge your own truth.” His smile was small as he patted Sizhui’s knees. “It was the only way I was able to manage all the years when your dad still didn’t know his own feelings.”

“It must’ve been torture,” Sizhui said.

Papa smiled and met Dad’s eyes. “It wasn’t so bad, in the end. But you and Jingyi are different. You don’t have the restrictions on you that Uncle put on me and your Uncle Xichen. You don’t have the physical distance between you. If you want to, you can start dating now. If you feel like you’re ready.”

Sizhui tried not to hunch his shoulders and make himself smaller, but the uncertainty ate at him. “But what if I ruin our friendship? I don’t think--I couldn’t take him hating me.”

“Oh, Sizhui,” Dad said as he clambered over the desk and hugged him. “Jingyi could never hate you. I know you know him better than that, but if you want more, well…”

“Leap of faith?” Sizhui asked.

Both his fathers nodded. 

If the Lan-Wei family had its own motto, Leap of Faith, would be it. If they had their own crest, it would be a rabbit surrounded by the words, Daring, Determination, Devotion, and Honesty. His fathers had raised him with those values, and Sizhui did his best to own them, and now, he knew, he could either rely on them or try to patiently wait until Jingyi came to him. 

If at school the dynamic of Sizhui and Jingyi made the perfect Lan, at home, Sizhui was very much the best, and worst, of both of his fathers. 

“Oh, I know that look,” Dad said as he kissed the top of Sizhui’s head. “Poor Jingyi isn’t going to know what hit him.” Sizhui could feel his wide grin against his hair. “It’s going to be awesome.”

Part 2

[quinintheclouds]

I found out im a ravenclaw! It doesn't feel like it fits me but hey, what are you gonna do about it. Can you tell me stuff about ravenclaws?

Yay, I’d love to! Quick aside though, what do you mean by “found out?” Your wording seems to indicate it was something shown/told to you rather than a conclusion on which you’d arrived yourself. If you took a quiz, those can be fun but aren’t reliable. I can take the pottermore test 3 times in a row answering with complete honesty and get sorted into 3 different Houses. The quizzes are all just someone else’s perceptions of what innocuous details might pertain to each House, and a few years ago I conducted an analysis of the different options/choices and the Houses to which they led, and… a lot of it’s kinda irrelevant and arbitrary.

If I’m misinterpreting and you DID come to this realization for yourself, I’m curious as to why you feel it doesn’t seem to fit you. but WELCOME to Ravenclaw! :D Keep in mind though that everyone has aspects of every House, and aspects of themselves that aren’t contained by Houses at all!

Okay, initial ramblings aside… sorry :P Ready to hear some bomb info about us Ravenclaws that often isn’t talked about? Let’s go! [Bear in mind that these aren’t exclusive to just Ravenclaws and also won’t apply to every Ravenclaw! Some of these are just my personal experience/thoughts]

So first, Ravenclaw’s canon defining characteristics: intelligence, creativity, wit, imagination, love of learning, uniqueness, originality, individuality, curiosity, open-mindedness, and acceptance. 

We are largely a compassionate bunch that stands against ignorance of all kinds and will fight by informing others. Ravenclaws can often be found organizing protests and the like for important causes (akin to Hermione’s S.P.E.W.)

A lot of Ravenclaws have trouble settling on our House, because we can have the inclination to look at every angle of a scenario so that we can at least attempt to more objectively weigh the options. This is why I used to think I was a Gryffindor/Hufflepuff for long stretches of time.

Another reason some of us hesitate to sort ourselves as such is because of the misconception that Ravenclaws always make great grades or are dutiful with schoolwork. Not true. Intelligence comes in many forms!

On that note, neurodivergent Ravenclaws may struggle to feel we belong when we see so many our peers excel in school. 

On the brighter side, Ravenclaws like these will somewhat unknowingly wind up banding together. We’re the ones who accidentally miss class because we’re so engrossed in researching some big new interest. The ones who annoy the others by testing out new spells/potions of our own creation and consequently making a mess and ruckus. We’re the ones who forgot to study because we got confused by one of the points in the book/lecture and wound up writing an essay trying to debunk the error instead of doing the actual assignment. Here’s to us lol

A bunch of us DEFINITELY waste time gathered outside the common room (or CAW-mmon room!) just solving the door’s riddles. (If you didn’t know, the door only opens after you answer a different riddle every time) 

The vast majority of us LOVE puns. Ah, wordplay… the toy of language.

Starting a million projects and never finishing them whoops

Having a million journals you’ve written in so you have no clue which is which at this point

Buying way too many books but rarely finding time to actually read

OUR HOUSE COLORS ARE BLUE AND BRONZE, DAMMIT! THE MOVIES CHANGED THE BRONZE TO SILVER AND I’LL NEVER BE OVER IT (lol I’m totally chill about this, can you tell?)

We are HUGE daydreamers! We pride ourselves on imagination, and luckily for us, we’re in one of the tallest towers of Hogwarts (bc we represent the element of air) so we have beautiful windows out of which to gaze while letting our minds wander 

Also the cawmmon room ceiling is magically designed to always look like the night sky, so we love to lie on the floor and watch the stars, moon, planets, etc.

WE FRICKIN’ LOVE SPACE, OKAY???

NEVER leave your stuff behind in the dorms! You’ll have to answer a riddle to get back in, and by that time you’ll be late to class (fellow ADHD Ravenclaws, we know this pain all too well)

We’re an adventurous bunch, contrary to some belief. But our adventures aren’t purely for external enjoyment — the excitement arises from the stimulation of our minds. Curiosity killed the cat, as it were, but feeds the eagle. We’ll sneak out of the dorms to go to the library or steal some ingredients from the Potions classroom for an experiment. The Restricted Section is our playground. 

We’re artists, writers, poets, performers, musicians. People overlook this too often, but these are so important to so many of us. I create, therefore I am.

We’re pretty weird and eccentric a lot of the time, but embracing that helps us gain understanding about what makes us passionate, and we’ll work hard for things we care about.

Side Note: I’ll never not be bitter that Fred and George were in Gryffindor. They were such Ravenclaws. They were impish lil pranksters, and very clever about it, and only did so when there was something to be learned from it (i.e. testing their numerous inventions). I could even see Slytherin more than Gryffindor. *Sigh,* I digress… for now.

I’m one of the Ravenclaws who discusses philosophy and theoretics for hours on end, and the annoying one who asks random questions for the sake of asking questions, just as a game to test myself and see if I can come up with possible answers. (The embodiment of the “do you think pigeons have feelings?” meme).

We, uh. Have terrible sleeping habits. And eating. And showering. And we forget water exists sometimes. We kinda have problems remembering we have corporeal bodies with needs or whatever. Lame.

Some of the more rigid, stereotypical Ravenclaws can be defensively competitive for top of class, and that can turn a bit sour, but I like to avoid that drama altogether.

We notably broke into the Astronomy Tower to watch a meteor shower, and lost so many points we came dead last in the House Cup that year.

Many of us have ALSO snuck into the Forbidden Forest to study creatures and explore deeper.

Yeah we don’t win the Cup often.

Muggle-born Ravenclaws get together in secret to teach the others about math/science/literature/etc. because the purebloods BEGGED them to and they were happy to oblige.

Interviewing the paintings to learn magical history from a firsthand account bc Professor Binns is too detached and boring

According to the wiki, we’re the House most likely to dismiss social conventions and unspoken rules in the search for satiating our curiosity. We’re full of quirks and often won’t stand for playing by unnecessary or flawed rules of any nature.

As hyper and Extra™ as some of us can be, we also love to chill by the fire with a book, a blanket, some music, and maybe too much tea

In general, we’re “well-known for being welcoming and encouraging of creativity, eccentricity and individuality and being very accepting,” as stated by the wiki.

Okay, I am physically forcing myself to stop now. As you can see, we also tend to just dump information all over the place lmao XD Anyway this was fun to write and I might make a post about neurodivergent Ravenclaws in particular… Let me know if you have any updates on your House, and if you ARE a Ravenclaw, we’re happy to have you!!!

[popliar]

blindmouse replied to your post “K-Con Australia, 20170922-23”

1) thank you for this write-up!! I love concert reports and this was a great one.

NO THANK U for actually reading this monster and for your really thoughtful replies! I'll compile my replies here for handiness.

… oh I forgot I couldn’t use carriage returns in replies whoops. 2) that’s really interesting that it didn’t sell out either night! I would have thought wanna one alone would do it, given the urgency there (probably the only time they’ll ever promote in australia). 3) agree that aus fans would ABSOLUTELY show for the big girl groups, especially with the size that international kpop fandom is now. There’s no way Twice wouldn’t sell out.

I know, it’s shocking! When I say it didn't sell out, I mean it really DID NOT sell out. There were large swathes of empty seats, even in the 'cheap' seats (spoiler: there were no cheap seats). It was fuller on the first night with EXO, but even then it sold less in total than G-Dragon at the same venue, who in turn sold less than BTS... Diminishing returns, tbh. Local fans aren't endless streams of money and maybe promotors will start to see that.

That said YES I would put down money immediately to go to see Twice! I agree, they could totally do it. Even if they just wanted to test the waters and do a smaller sized tour, like say GOT7-sized venues. That would be awesome.

4) I am curious about which sf9 your fave rapper with the red hair is but since I can’t ID him from that description perhaps I should not kid myself it would be super meaningful to me to know lololol. I’m still waiting for sf9 to sort of transcend themselves with a comeback, but I have more faith that they’ll do it than say up10tion, as much as I respect their skill and as fond as I am of their faces.

@queer-mac and @proteinscollide inform me that my bias is Juho! I love his rap and his looks! On such flimsy bases do I form my opinions L O L. 

I feel like the window for Up10tion is closing? Idk. Maybe I'm being too harsh, they're still young. 

5) my victon knowledge and emotions start and end with ‘one of them has a crush on jimin and I wish him the best’, but I’m glad you got a mullet moment lololol. 6) I’m glad girl’s day were good and also super jealous! I would love to see something and expectation live omigosh. 7) still lolling at australia’s favourite boy band.

But who DOESN’T have a crush on Jimin? Gosh I wonder if it’s the one with the mullet...

I will never stop loling over the 'fave boyband' misstep omg. Always! use! closed! questioning!!!

8) I’m glad there was no sinister reason for D.O’s absence but that is just weird that they didn’t say anything. Maybe if they’d given a reason for him they would have had to mention Lay’s absence, though :// I’m glad they were good, anyway! Watching their performances at the end of year shows last year I just kept thinking they looked exhausted to death, so I’m glad that wasn’t true now, even coming right off a promotional period.

Yeah, exactly, I remember when we discussed that one awards show where almost every one of them looked like they wanted to just quietly lie down in a darkened room. But I think they got a lot of time off this year? (I wish BTS got the kind of time off they did...)

9) Daehwi is very cute and also kind of unashamedly himself even when he got hate on 101, which I respected a lot. (I kept imagining that he was how VIXX’s N might have been as a maknae, but that is perhaps an irrelevantly personal observation.) 10) Those Kylie covers are so cute! Or, well, I only watched Locomotion because of the video quality of the other, but it was delightful. 11) One of the only WJSN facts I know is that their main rapper is Exy and she’s phenomenal

Daehwi! That's really nice to see someone who’s not in the typical mould for a boyband member and still being super successful - is he now my Wanna One bias? I have chosen biases for less! Maybe he is!!

There aren't enough videos up from night 2 yet sadly, if I find a better WJSN video later I will try to swap out links! And omg yes it's Exy, I LOVE HER, SHE IS NOW MY BIAS. (see above, re flimsy reasons for choosing biases)

12) cockily charismatic on-stage/endearingly sheepish off-stage + cats is pretty much the key to the kang daniel thing. 13) I’m really glad MX put on such a good show! I’d love to see them sometime, they seem like they have incredible energy on stage.

...does Daehwi like cats tho? This is important. Bc Daniel has gained so many bonus points already from that.

MX FOREVER.

[happyminyards]

*pounds fists on table* give us fun facts about early manned space flight!!

YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND TBH strap yourselves in this is gonna get long bcs!! astronauts!! are!! so!! cool!!- during the first american spacewalk, or extravehicular activity for all you nerds, ed white was So Floored by the beauty of space that he almost forgot to come back into the spacecraft. he had to get back in due to Reasons, but he tried to use tacking more pictures as an excuse to stay out longer until his flight partner managed to and i quote “coax” him back in. all white said? “It’s the saddest moment of my life.” (still less terrifying then the first russian spacewalk tbh) - the first song played in space was jingle bells on an 8 note harmonica during gemini 6 by wally shirra, one of the orginal 7 nasa astronauts. immediatly before that they reported an “unknown object”. they reported santa’s sleigh. because of course they did. 

- hey you know that feeling when you’re on top of a 111m/363ft tall rocket that could cause one of the largest non-nuclear man made explosions if it failed? and your heart rate never gets above 70? yeah me neither but john w. young does. (for comparison: usually it spikes up to around 130-150. neil armstrong who?)

- speaking of john young, that man is a Beast. flew gemini, apollo AND the first shuttle flight. he also smuggled a corned beef sandwhich into gemini 3 that almost fucked up their electricity. because the space food they got was terrible, which i mean frankly i understand.

- during the assembly of the lunar landing modules, people weren’t allowed to bring screw drivers into them because if they’d fall, they’d break the floor. those things were FLIMSY. when they pressurized, the window would bend towards the outside. 

- yuri gagarin was a Delight for multiple reasons not limited to: introducing himself as the “world’s first spaceman” to some very confused soviet children and village people who probably thought he was a spy when he landed after his flight, sitting on a cushion as a pilot because he was too small to see and couldn’t stick his landings right since he couldn’t see the runway, shouting “off we go!” while being shot into space. nice dude. - apollo 12 was hit by lightning pretty much immediatly after take off. their entire console basically went “whoop de doo you’re fucked” and decided to give them a giant light show of warning lights. the only reason they didn’t had to do a super risky abort was because john aaron, flight controller extraordinair who’d later play a big role in apollo 13, remembered some obscure as fuck switch that could fix the electrical system and alan bean, astronaut who now PAINTS WITH LITERAL MOON DUST, remembered said obscure switch from a training exercise. the entire crew broke out into what one author described as “nervous giggles” after that. my favourite bit is how they relay the information from flight controller to flight director to capcom to pilot and EVERY SINGLE ONE says “the what switch now?”- speaking of the apollo 12 crew: besides being an absolute Gem in general, they were music enthusiasts. pete conrad brought along a bunch of country and western music that the other two didn’t like, but alan bean was into top 40 which led them to sing and “dance” to Sugar, Honey, Honey on their way too the moon. holding hands and gently floating around. IN SPACE. what dorks. - other reasons why apollo 12 is the best: they had matching custom painted cars that they drove around houston. ask me for more if you’re into lovely flight crew dynamics for all your au and hope in humanity needs.- so the americans used to land their crews in the ocean bcs u know you have it why not use it it’s convenient. the soviets/russians don’t really have any suitable ocean around so they had to settle for land landings. which not only brought about the already mentioned gagarin incident, but in general led to some… fun incidents (iirc one crew got stuck in the tundra for like two days and met some polar bears). on the second ever soviet space flight, cosmonaut gherman titov (who also was the first person to sleep in space and get space sickness so u know), was seen ejecting himself from his spacecraft (they used to do that bcs they were #hardcore) and almost landed himself on some rail tracks before landing backwards, rolling over 3 times and getting a face full of nice dirt. some very lovely lady saw this and in her rush to be a Helpful Human drove SO FAST over the bumpy terrain that she banged her head on the steering wheel and “jumped out with a bloody forehead”. so his first task post! landing from the then longest space flight in human history? as the then youngest person in space ever?? giving first aid from his Spacecraft Medical Kit to a local lady. 

HERE YA GO your daily dose of Fun Space Facts. and this is just!! the tip of the iceberg!! there’s so much more!! female astronauts!! john glenne setting his house on fire to impress gherman titov!!! grammatical errors on lunar plaques!! mORE MUSIC IN SPACE!! PRANKS!! HUMANITY BEING COOL!!

[zhaoly]

ok really long post ahead, sorry for mobile users since i dont think the spoiler break works on mobile iirc

i finally finished the main quest for fo4.. um.... was that it?? that was kinda my first reaction lol. ok i have SO many thoughts as i always do when i finish a game.. maybe more for this one tho

so i ended up doing both the minutemen and bos endings because they split relatively late in the story so i just made two separate saves... they were basically the same except i thought following liberty prime was kinda fun lol. i liked watching him pick up a behemoth and then just throwing it to the ground

so now that i’ve like... finished the game.... i guess i can see why people complain that fo4 is more of an fps than an rpg

like.... i’ve dumped a ton of hours into this game, but that’s mostly because i’ve spent a lot of time building settlements lol. besides that, the story does seem to be lacking a bit. i think it definitely had potential, but nothing was really fleshed out that well... like if i try to think back on what i did, i’m like.. ??

maybe part of that is because four main factions was a little ambitious? i just feel like there wasn’t much opportunity to actually get to know each faction and like actually feel like you were involved with them

1) minutemen - i mean, you got a shitton of radiant quests from preston (which drove me crazy very early on and got modded out)... and then what? you claim settlements and that’s about it. reclaiming the castle is as deep as the story gets. besides that all you have is radiant quests

also there were like... zero named characters besides preston who were actually really involved with the minutement. like there was ronnie shaw but she just ends being a merchant later, and i didn’t even get the proper armory quest from her because my game glitched out. so basically she was just a unique merchant for me

and like... who else is there?? there’s the sanctuary crew and some named settlers but none of them are really part of the “minutemen.” so like you didn’t really get to talk to members of the faction and stuff and actually feel like you were immersed in the story. like i know that the story is that you’re rebuilding the minutemen so there’s supposed to be no one but preston, but later on as you claim settlements and expand the minutement and stuff there’s still nothing... no new story, quest, npcs... you have to do some dungeon clearing quests for some of the named settlers but that’s literally it.

i liked their general “for the people” thing but like... they never really expanded on it... they did end up being one of the two factions that i sided with because of their cause but i just think the story (or lack thereof, really) with them was pretty bland

2) railroad - well i was considering joining them very early on cause i do think their cause is decent, i like deacon, and i accidentally spoiled for myself that danse is a synth (i like danse because i mean you know me and my beef)... but then i felt like they were a little too focused on the synths. like that was literally just their entire cause. and i just felt like that was just too narrow.

and you met these characters that you really just.... met and then nothing ever happened later with them! like high rise, mister tims, idk what the point of drummer boy was, etc..

and again there were just a ton of radiant quests... at least they were all finite, but like there was what? helping that one safehouse (forgot the name), mila quests, and pam’s caches. the ticonderoga quest was kinda interesting but i wish there was something more besides “here’s ticonderoga. oh whoops it gets destroyed later. haha!”

3) institute - well i disliked them right off the bat because they were the ones who not only MURDERED MY HUSBAND but also KIDNAPPED AND BRAINWASHED MY CHILD (yes i consider it brainwashing)????? like come on. i take this stuff very personally man. it’s the same reason why i joined the stormcloaks in skyrim (before realizing what a bunch of racist assholes they are but.... i digress) cause i was like WHY tf would i join a group that tried to execute me with absolutely zero cause

so i’m just like why would i join a group that murdered my husband (right in front of my eyes i might add) and kidnapped my child. hello??? like yeah i hated the fact that they gave you a goddamn baby in the first place, but since i had it i was like WELL I AM OUTRAGED THAT THEY DID THIS TO MY CHILD.

then there was the whole deal with them actually taking real people (and presumably murdering them) and replacing them with synth copies. i HATED that a lot and it was a big turnoff on top of all of my personal grievances against them. their elitist attitude towards the commonwealth was annoying as fuck as well as their manufacturing of gen 3 synths for what was basically slave labor. also there were like random conversations that would occur between scientists and synths and the scientists were such assholes.

oooooh and the part where you ask shaun why he decided to let you out of your cryo pod and he’s like “well... i suppose that i just wanted to see what would happen” and i was like BITCH WHAT?????? EXCUSE ME?????? THAT’S YOUR REASON?? 

like the shaun/father thing was an interesting twist in the story... but it def was not enough to make me want to join the institute. esp with that craphole reason that he gave me for letting me out of the cryo pod. and like the dude is basically a stranger to you, why tf would you just join the institute bc he’s “”””family””””? i suppose they tried to make it a more difficult dilemma by really trying to push your character’s story in the “i’m looking for my son!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” direction before you actually find out what happened to shaun, but i didnt find that a very compelling plot point in the first place.... so it had pretty much no bearing on my decision

also. the synth shaun. he made the synth shaun which is like super weird and a little creepy. like this kid’s never gonna age.... i mean 50 years from now he’s gonna be a 60 y-o in a 10 y-o’s body!!!!!!!! who tf thought that was a good idea?? i mean i’m on the “gen 3 synths are truly sentient” train cause the game basically does nothing to show you otherwise. you have institute scientists telling you that they aren’t, but literally everything in the game shows you that they are. also danse

and then their cause... they say they’re the “best hope for humanity” and stuff but like what are they actually doing to help humanity. the only beneficial thing they did was create gmos like that huge pumpkin (while replacing roger ww in the process which as i mentioned before was something i hated). besides that, wtf are they doing besides hiding away in their blindingly white laboratories experimenting w/ synths?? 

anyway yeah i hated the institute but i guess in terms of “story” they did a little better than the railroad and minutemen. but they honestly got a helping hand from the fact that shaun was involved with them and a large part of the story early on was looking around for information about shaun and being able to ask npcs about the institute. however once you proceeded past a certain point they also fell into a very boring routine of having a handful of radiant quests available and not much else involving them

4) bos - well.... i def felt like they were super culty when i first went onto the prydwen. and i really dont like their stance on gen 3s and non-feral ghouls. but i do like that theyre out and about clearing the commonwealth of super mutants, ferals, and raiders lol. 

i really really hate the whole danse thing tho and how close-minded they are about him :( i did see that there was actually cut content where you could challenge maxson and danse would get his rank back and i kinda wish that they actually implemented that. i dont really want the elder role but i’d like the chance to do something where you could shift the bos’s opinion on gen 3s, even if only slightly... like THAT would be a good story element, come on! 

but w/e. i really didnt like them at first but i like their aesthetic compared to everyone else and their general cause (at least theyre not like opening fire on the slog, right... ?) ..

anyway i might just stick with their ending as my “main” playthrough cause afaict they’re not much diff from the minutemen ending except i get the sentinel rank, and you actually have some named people that you can interact with about your choice.

ok im actually really tired of writing this post... i actually have so many more thoughts haha but i dunno if i’ll be able to get them all out because as if on cue i’m getting tired around midnight.. anyway

yeah so the story was eh and i wish it went more in depth. like, even though i wasnt super fond of fnv’s story, i did think it was more immersive and detailed... i think fo4 had a lot of potential but sadly didn’t quite deliver. tbh i think the game couldve gone without the railroad if four factions really did just spread them too thin while in development.

like i think the part of the story with kellogg was good... the whole thing about trying to find the identity of this guy, searching his home, searching for him, looking through his memories, etc was pretty interesting. i liked how we were able to see his backstory and something about him that wasn’t just “dude who murdered my husband.” like that was all good stuff! but the story REALLY deteriorated after that... i mean you just end up having to kill the guy and then he’s just out of the story completely.

oh and like related to that--what was that whole deal with nick speaking in kellogg’s voice briefly after you finish in the memory den??? why would they just throw in a line like that and not expand on it at all???? that bugged me SO MUCH because again there was so much potential there!!! if kellogg had somehow gotten into nick’s mind you could be presented with so many new options. like how do you get him out? can you get him out? who do you go to for help? etc etc etc NOT JUST SOME THROWAWAY LINE THAT ACTUALLY DOES NOTHING AHHH

speaking of which. fo4 seems to do that a LOT. like maybe it’s recency bias bc i really dont remember all the details of fnv to be able to compare, but i feel like fo4 has a ton of little throwaway things that are interesting details but aren’t expanded on at all. like not even a little bit. i think there needs to be a certain balance between details and mini stories... like fo4 dangled SO many of these little details in your face that you just never got to expand on at all.. i love an interesting world where you can discover things that dont really have an impact on the main story or anything but these scraps just drove me crazy.

also there were like... no vaults??? i feel like fnv had a lot more... fo4 has vault 95 for cait (and a kinda boring purpose/story imo). the vault of triggermen where you find nick. the vault for refining human genes. vault 81. and that’s it.. i felt like i spent a lot more time in vaults in fnv? and they had some creepier stories/experiments too

ok like my brain... is really slowing down but i will at least get a few more thoughts down before i go to sleep

SETTLEMENTS. LORD HELP ME. again, a great concept with so much potential but poor execution. i really enjoyed settlements--with mods. vanilla settlements are just so horribly lacking. for one thing not being able to clean up your settlement is just terrible. you really would just have to leave piles of trash, garbage, debris, 200-YEAR-OLD SKELETONS, etc, lying around your settlement!!!!! where you’re supposed to have people living!!

settlers themselves also have some pretty terrible ai. theyre stupid af. their pathing is godawful. i am extremely proud of them when they actually are able to successfully navigate a structure i built because it is such a goddamn struggle for them! like they’re literally coded to take the shortest possible straight line path so i get tons of them walking into walls trying to get to their destination instead of walking around them, going through doorways, using stairs etc (yes theyre all navmeshed)... it’s actually so aggravating

also settlements themselves are incredibly and frustratingly buggy. the resources getting messed up in your pip boy bug is super annoying. there’s a shit ton of other bugs with them that i’m just too tired to list but i’m like ahhh god i feel like i’m playing a beta version of this shit! also what’s up with them spawning on top of buildings in sanctuary?

ok yeah i have a lot of crticisms for the game so it may not seem like i enjoyed it but i actually did. i think the story was decent up until after you finished kellogg’s part, cause after that it just got really boring (which is lame because seriously, the story gets boring after you can start decided which faction/s you want to join??)

but mods def contributed a lot to my enjoyment, esp my settlement mods... like most of my mods are settlement mods lol. so like... if i played vanilla fo4 i do doubt that i’d have enjoyed it as much. i do actually like the fps aspect of it, but i think there are too many places that are overloaded with enemies.. so you’re constantly fighting shit. it gets kind of annoying after a while.

OH THAT JUST REMINDED ME. GUNNERS. another thing that had potential but ended up just being... ??? raiders but fancier??? you could literally switch out all the gunners for raiders and nothing would change. when i first encountered them i was really excited cause i thought it was a new side faction but they’re literally just... raiders. but fancy. it’s disappointing af. there’s no story behind them... you can get into gunners plaza and find some holotapes from the leader and some members but then there’s nothing else! you don’t ever get to find out what the story is behind all of it! again with dangling some details in front of your face and then just never expanding on it at all. ugh gunners were seriously a big disappointment for me.

okay i’m actually done now cause i’m tired and typing this out actually took a lot of time lol. i still have a ton of thoughts but i need to sleep. lame

[inksie]

My mom completely surprised me with a trip to Florida as a belated birthday present. I didn’t think we would be able to go on any sort of vacation at all this year, but one morning she was like “HEY WE’RE GOING TO ORLANDO TODAY” so there we have it. Craziest surprise ever.

Anyway! Like a nerd, I wanted to go Disneybounding as Honey Lemon and while we were downtown I met this other really awesome Honey Lemon Disneybounder! She was a total sweetheart and it really made my day to meet another Big Hero 6 fan. :D